With the high price of boats these days, owners really want to protect their investments, particularly when transporting their boats on roads using a boat trailer hitched to a motor vehicle. Conventionally, when travelling on asphalt roads, it is somewhat rare that these roads have any significant debris, but of course they have some debris here and there. It may only take just one rock on the road to be thrown up to make a dent in your boat. Typically, for someone who never goes into dirt roads, unprotected boats can get a few marks after the first 1-2 years. However, if you go on a dirt road, an unprotected boat may get all dented after just 15 minutes.
A boat is a big investment, so there is always a need for improvements that can protect and mitigate the high cost of repainting, repairing, or replacing a boat or trailer.
Aprons applied directly onto the boat may be used but these may have a significant disadvantage: removing the boats glossy finish. To address this secondary problem, a debris shield that does not actually touch the boat can be used instead in order to eliminate both dents and scuffing marks. Typically a debris shield includes a canvas that is mounted at one to the boat and at the other end to the trailer such that the canvas does not touch the boat to scuff it yet can prevent debris thrown up from the road to reach the boat. To that end, it is known to use a canvas made of mesh, as used in heavy trucks to prevent gravel from spilling out the trailer, to provide the canvas portion of a debris shield.
One disadvantage of both aprons and debris shields is that these products are typically sized to specific boat and or trailer combinations. Furthermore, with some debris shields, it may be required to get on the ground under the boat to operate the assembly.